Gold medal will be the best Father's Day gift: athlete's dad

2012/08/08 22:55:44

Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) Taiwanese taekwondo athlete Wei Chen-yang advanced to the quarterfinals at the Olympics on Wednesday and his father, a taekwondo coach and referee, has high hopes that his son will bring home a gold medal to celebrate Father's Day on Aug. 8.

The 20-year-old Wei defeated Le Huynh Chau of Vietnam 5-1 in the 58-kg category and will face Alexey Denisenko of Russia in the round of eight later in the day.

"I will be waiting at home for the gift (of a gold medal)," said Wei Jui-hsien, a national coach and one of the World Taekwondo Federation international referees, after his son's first-round victory.

"It will be the most valuable Father's Day's gift."

Wei expressed confidence that his son will advance to the finals, saying that as long as the athlete can maintain the same momentum he had in his gold-medal win at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, there will be no problem.

Also on Wednesday, Wei's compatriot Yang Shu-chun, one of the Taiwan's medal hopefuls in the Games, trounced German athlete Sumeyye Manz 10-3 in the 49-kg category to advance to the quarterfinals.

Yang, who finished fifth in the Beijing Olympics, will compete against Chanatip Sonkham of Thailand later in the day.

Yang was trailing 0-3 after her opponent scored a head kick 10 seconds into the first round. But she quickly recovered and made two valid attacks to her opponent's head to receive six points in the second round.

The 26-year-old Taiwanese gained one more point after Manz was issued two warning penalties.

Liu Tsung-ta, Yang's coach and boyfriend, said he was not worried about the kick to Yang's head because he knew she could adjust quickly and it was still early in the match.

With Yang leading 7-3 after the second round in the three-round match, Liu told her to "stop attacking" once she could maintain that lead to the end of the match.

"There's no need to show all she's got in the first match," he said.

Liu said on his Facebook page Tuesday that the London Olympics could be Yang's last time representing Taiwan in the sport.